Canada needs to protect its border with the U.S.

"Since the pandemic’s onset, the Canadian and American policy responses to COVID-19 have sharply differed. And the results are telling. To date, more than 5,800 Canadians have died from COVID-19, and almost 80,000 have been infected. But the numbers are flattening across the country."

President Donald J. Trump lands in Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House Sunday, July 21, 2019. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

This week, Canadian politicians and ordinary Canadians breathed a sigh of relief when their country and the U.S. agreed to extend the restriction on non-essential travel across the border until June 21.

Since the pandemic’s onset, the Canadian and American policy responses to COVID-19 have sharply differed. And the results are telling. To date, more than 5,800 Canadians have died from COVID-19 and almost 80,000 have been infected. But the numbers are flattening across the country.

In contrast, more than 90,000 Americans have died and more than 1.5 million have been infected. And flareups are starting in states have begun lifting lockdown directives. As the economies of both countries re-open, the Canadian government faces a critical question: when is it safe to reopen the border to non- essential travel with its largest trading partner?

The strong push by some American politicians and citizens to re-open the economy is driven by politics, ideology and economic interests. More than 33 million Americans have lost their jobs since the onset of COVID-19. Direct federal government support has consisted of a one-time payment of $1,200 to individuals.

Canada’s unemployment rate in April spiked to 20 per cent, but provincial and federal support for individuals and businesses have been more generous. Individual Canadians, for instance, can receive $2,000 per month, for up to four months. The federal deficit is estimated to swell to at least $250 billion this year.

The United States, of course, has the right to determine its priorities and policies as it faces COVID-19. However, the initial mismanagement of the pandemic, including miscommunication, absence of political leadership, politically driven distrust of public health and scientific experts, dearth of COVID-19 testing and the lack of cohesive planning, should give Canada pause about re-opening the border to non-essential travel for the foreseeable future. Reports of armed protesters opposing lock-down orders, mask wearing and social distancing is an additional troublesome indicator.

Then there is President Donald Trump’s advocating hydroxychloroquine as a treatment — this week he announced he was taking it himself — despite health warnings. Meanwhile, the president is fighting with Democratic governors. And he continues to deny the scope of the impact of COVID-19. Last week one of the President’s sons stated the pandemic was a Democratic hoax to prevent his father’s re-election rallies and predicted the virus would disappear after the November election.

The muddled political response to the crisis, the failure to follow public health measures and, in both countries, that lack of widespread COVID-19 testing, make it impossible for Canadians to travel south of the 49th parallel without a serious risk of bringing the infection home. Studies show that the majority of COVID-19 infections in Canada resulted from Canadians visiting the U.S. in March.

Without doubt Canada’s economic prosperity is tied to the success of its largest trading partner. It is in Canada’s interest to re-open its border with the United States. While the supply chain between countries has not been significantly impacted during this period, there have been zero talks about a coordinated bi-lateral response to COVID-19.

The once-close relationship has suffered. Notably, President Trump’s attempt, subsequently overturned, to block the 3M Company from selling N-95 masks to Canada. The American withdrawal from the World Health Organization and its confrontation with Beijing has put Canada in a difficult position. China remains Canada’s largest supplier of personal protective equipment even as China continues to detain Canadians Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig (Beijing’s apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei.)

Unless a tracing system is developed, a vaccine is produced or widespread testing made available in both countries, the Canadian government must continue to ban non-essential travel to the U.S.

America has four per cent of the world’s population, but 30 per cent of the world’s deaths, a statistic that is likely to worsen in the months ahead.

“The broad curtailment measures implemented in March have largely had their intended effect,” remarked Dr. Lawrence Loh, a prominent Canadian public health official.

“In March, COVID-19 was like a wildfire. The sacrifices of many helped bring that under control in our communities, though it is still smouldering. We are now able to take careful decisions to restart our economy, while carefully ensuring that the pandemic doesn’t flare up again here in Canada.”

Re-opening up the Canadian-American bordering without restrictions would have disastrous results.

Paul M. Yeung is a Global Fellow at the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center. He is also a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), based in Toronto.

*This column has been updated with a more fulsome comment from Dr. Lawrence Loh.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.